Actors

This section profiles 37 actors who undertake activities or provide services with a goal of securing munitions safely or identifying and destroying surplus munitions. The focus is on bodies and organizations that make their expertise available to, or seek to influence agendas of, beneficiaries across the globe. The actors selected to be profiled are particularly involved in preventing UEMS events, although some of the actors also conduct post-explosion clearance and remediation activities. With only one exception, for an actor to be profiled it must address at least three of the following eight activities:

The actor helps to engage decision-makers and practitioners to focus on addressing stockpile management, and surplus identification, disposal, and destruction.Examples: International-level engagement would include supporting these specific concerns within the UN PoA framework. Regional-level engagement would include supporting the ECOWAS Convention, the Nairobi Protocol, or the RASR Initiative. National-level engagement would include working with governments to address and develop their own national standards on these issues.Notes: Although ISACS do not explicitly address munitions, work on ISACS modules that address stockpile management and destruction are deemed UEMS-relevant. Support for developing, promoting, and implementing IMAS is ‘creditworthy’, given the numerous standards that address stockpile handling, management, and destruction. However, marking, tracing, and record-keeping initiatives, while important components of stockpile management, are not included here.

Standard making

The actor is instrumental in developing and providing guidelines and best practices for the implementation of commitments or objectives. Examples: International-level best practices would include the International Ammunition Technical Guidelines (IATG). Regional-level best practices would include the Manual of NATO Safety Principles for the Storage of Military Ammunition and Explosives and the OSCE Handbook of Best Practices on Conventional Ammunition. National-level engagement would include working with governments to develop their own national standards and best practices.Notes: Some profiles include references to environmental and management standards (e.g. ISO 14000 and ISO 9000). These accomplishments, however, do not garner credit for the activity of standard-making.

Funding and tendering

The actor is active in fund-raising, funding, or coordinating international assistance and cooperation to undertake UEMS-related work.Examples: Too many to mention.Notes: When an actor funds an activity or service, or helps to secure service providers, or helps to choose—but does not engage itself in implementing —the activity or service, it receives credit for this activity, funding and tendering, but not elsewhere.

Technical assessment

The actor oversees the physical inspection of munitions sites to help ensure adherence to best practice regarding storage. Physical inspection includes the chemical testing of munitions’ explosives and stabilizers.

Education and training

The actor offers classroom- or field-based instruction on UEMS-related best practices.

On-site munitions management

The actor assists in the planning, design, construction, or refurbishment of sites for the safe storage of munitions, and conducts audits of sites.

Loading and transport

The actor undertakes the movement of munitions within locations in accordance with the proper management, disposal, or destruction of munitions.

Disposal and destruction

The actor implements either (1) the responsible removal, transfer, or destruction of munitions, or (2) the design, development, and production of demilitarization processes.

As noted in Part I, the actors come primarily from the United Nations system (5); regional organizations (8); non-governmental organizations (many of which are also active in humanitarian demining) and private companies (23); and ‘other’ (1), which includes an informal intergovernmental ‘platform’ initiative. Certain for-profit commercial enterprises have also been included. For the most part, however, companies undertaking industrial demilitarization of munitions primarily on their own territories have been excluded. Rather this Handbook features actors who offer their experts, expertise, and equipment to help countries address their needs in situ, in particular countries with limited or non-existent demilitarization capacities.

Part III is intended to highlight activities, rather than evaluate them (see Figure 14). Indeed, each profile is largely based on self-assessment, although all have benefited from the process of peer review. Those actors who participate in more activities are not necessarily better than those participating in fewer. And many actors who are not profiled here do valuable, related work.